chasing mirages
by paquerettes
Summary: Across deserts and seas and plains of heaving grain. Beyond ivy fences and hazy nights. And back again. Drabble 2: before they became colonel and lieutenant, they kept secrets. {fma drabble series, mostly about the main pairings.}
1. greed and selfishness

_fandom_: fullmetal alchemist (brotherhood)  
pairing/characters: lingfan  
_rating_: K+  
_A/N_: hey guys! so I'm just posting some stuff I put on tumblr and forgot to post here too. this is pretty much a standalone drabble, but I've decided to start a multi-pairing and character drabble series for fma. angsty lingfan for the first installment. enjoy! as always, please review if you can!

* * *

Lan Fan watched patiently from the shadows cast by the yellow moon hanging over the palace courtyard. The humid air of the Xingese night made her automail stiff and her clothes stick to her skin, but she was nothing if she could not weather just a little discomfort. Her fingers wrapped tighter around the kunai hidden in her sleeve as she watched the Gao clan girl stumble out from the Young Lord's bedchamber, giggling and trembling, her crimson robes hanging off her frame precariously.

_Don't be selfish, Lan Fan_, the bodyguard reminded herself.

Ling lay on the rumpled satin sheets of the bed shirtless and with both hands tucked behind his head, wearing the goofy smile Lan Fan knew well. She had to remind herself to breathe.

_Don't be selfish_, _Lan Fan_.

"I'm going to be emperor soon, you know," Ling says abruptly, with his back to her.

"I know that, Young Lord."

"I wonder which clan will offer me a wife first," he mused.

"Probably the Gao clan," Lan Fan replies witheringly. "You've already staked your claim haven't you?"

And Ling just laughs out loud. Lan Fan's heard his laugh a million times a day from when she was just a little girl in the plains of Yao territory, but she can't help but feel her heart fall into her stomach.

_Don't be selfish_, _Lan Fan._

Those were the words her grandfather once told her, as soon as he saw his young, stoic granddaughter becoming too attached to the twelfth prince of Xing. But as she fell onto his bed sheets and he linked his bare arm around her metal one, she couldn't help but feel angry at the mantra she's been repeating for so long. She had given him everything, her arm, her life, her loyalty, her love.

She can be selfish for a few more nights.


	2. pride and restrained prejudice

_fandom_: fullmetal alchemist (brotherhood)  
pairing/characters: royai  
_rating_: K+  
_description_: before they became colonel and lieutenant, they kept secrets.  
_A/N_: written listening to anohana ED expect errors because I was crying. again, review if possible!

* * *

When he wasn't snapping his fingers absentmindedly at fallen twigs on the lawn, Roy Mustang spent a lot of time perched by a window in the Hawkeye Manor, scribbling on loose paper.

Sometimes Riza would skirt past the dark-haired boy as she moved around the house, her hunting dog at her heels, her rifle hitting her back as she walked. And half those sometimes they would exchange sideways looks.

This often ended with the boy quickly averting his eyes outside, while clutching his pages to his chest defensively. Thankfully, Riza was not one to pry, though she was mildly interested in why her father's apprentice seemed to be deathly afraid of her. She shrugged to herself as she checked her reflection in her rifle.

* * *

_Crunch._

Riza peeled the now muddy paper from the sole of her boot. She turned it over once in her hand before knowing it was one of the pages the apprentice boy was so set on hiding. Suddenly guilty, she eyed her surroundings, finding the lawn completely barren save for a few crows. She examined her finding indulgently. The leaf of paper was now sufficiently wet, leaving the charcoal on it smudged and the drawing (Riza guessed it was a drawing) distorted. Suddenly, she understood. The curve of the subject's dress, the slant of the subjects brow, the mess of short hair. This had to be a sketch of her. She smirked, rather pleased with herself. That would explain Roy's (Riza guessed his name was Roy) fishy behaviour around her.

She gave a fond glance towards his favourite window before tucking the paper delicately into her hunting bag.


End file.
